By Governor's Order, Do Not Make a Fuss

By STACEY STOWE

Published: January 2, 2005

CREIGHTON QUINN was pensive as he took a break last Tuesday from the morning paper and his plate of eggs at a Hartford diner. The night before, the 47-year-old account executive learned that Governor M. Jodi Rell had undergone surgery for breast cancer and would be in the hospital for three days. Mr. Quinn said he wished he'd had some advance notice.

''I was shocked,'' he said. ''You didn't hear anything and then all of a sudden, she's having an operation.''

That's the way Mrs. Rell wanted it.

As her press office issued a statement and made a sobering round of telephone calls to the media Monday morning, Mrs. Rell was already being prepped for a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery at Danbury Hospital. While she was in surgery, few people in the hospital knew she was there.

''We haven't had any calls,'' said Mary Ann Bova, who was answering the phone on Monday at the hospital's information desk. ''Nobody even knew she was here.''

Indeed, according to patient information, no one named ''Rell'' was registered at the hospital.

News of her surgery was accompanied by a tersely worded directive: ''Gov. Rell has asked that people not send cards, flowers or gifts during her brief hospital stay.''

Aside from her known inclination to sidestep the limelight, political observers speculated that Mrs. Rell, 58, underplayed her illness to head off claims that she will be distracted from leading the state by her recovery.

''I think she wants to demonstrate that she's in charge, that she has a health condition but that is not going to stop her from discharging her duties,'' said Ken Dautrich, a political scientist at the University of Connecticut and director of its polling institute.

The governor's staff provided limited information about Mrs. Rell's condition. They released two brief statements on Monday, the first explaining that a routine mammogram had revealed cancer but it had not spread to her lymph nodes. The second announced that her surgery was complete and had gone as expected.. The cancerous tumor was less than two centimeters in diameter, her spokesman said Tuesday.

The statements mentioned that the governor was committed to attending the Jan. 5 opening of the General Assembly and in fact, intended to watch the University of Connecticut football team play in the Motor City Bowl game against Toledo on television. (She said Tuesday that she watched the second half. UConn won, 39-10, and the game ball was dedicated to Mrs. Rell, according to Mike Enright, a spokesman for the university's athletic department.) Mrs. Rell's husband, Louis Rell, and their two children, Michael, and Meredith, were at the hospital during the operation and her recovery.

Her friends aren't surprised to learn she is downplaying her illness and announcing her intention to keep working. Lenny Winkler, a Republican State Representative who served in the House with Mrs. Rell beginning in 1988, said the governor never wants anyone to fuss over her but is one of ''the first on hand when you need her.''

''That is so Jodi,'' said Mrs. Winkler, a licensed practical nurse who learned of Mrs. Rell's surgery on Monday from the governor's staff. ''She's a very private person and a very strong person.''

Indeed, Mrs. Winkler said she is concerned about the governor's determination to be present on the opening day of the legislative session.

''It will be unbelievable if she does it,'' Mrs. Winkler said, ''but I think that's pushing it.''

James Amann, a Democrat who was elected Speaker of the House, said he had little doubt that Mrs. Rell would push herself to get back to work, probably sooner than she should. Mr. Amann did the same thing, when more than three years ago, he received a diagnosis of esophageal cancer during a hard-won race for House Majority Leader. His doctor predicted a three-month recovery but complications ensued and it was six months before he felt healthy again. His advice to Mrs. Rell?

''Do what you have to do to get strong,'' he said. ''It would be a great moment for the chamber for her to be here on Jan. 5 but after such a traumatic experience, if she isn't here, we just hope and pray she's getting better.''

As for anyone who would suggest that Mrs. Rell's illness could interfere with her ability to govern, Mr. Amann said, ''That would be suicide.''

''With her approval rating and being a woman governor, a woman with breast cancer, anyone who sees a vulnerable politician would represent the worst of the worst in politics,'' he said.

While Mrs. Rell was in the hospital, Lt. Gov. Kevin B. Sullivan was covering but not filling in for her. In an interview on Monday night, Mr. Sullivan, a Democrat, said he was not ''acting governor.'' Mrs. Rell had phoned him on Dec. 23 with news of her illness. He said their conversation centered on illness and family more than the business of running the state.

''I'm in state and at work,'' Mr. Sullivan said. ''But I'm not acting governor.''

Under state law, if the governor is unable to serve, the lieutenant governor ''assumes the power of the office'' but only after a written declaration by the governor. Absent a letter and if the governor is incapacitated, a nine-member council that includes the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, convenes after a majority vote to ''raise the question'' of the governor's incapacity. If two-thirds of the council deem the governor incapacitated, the lieutenant governor ''ascends'' to governor, said Scott Slifka, chief of staff to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.

Jef Dunphy, 23, of Berlin, who works at the Travelers Insurance Company and who was picking up coffee in Hartford on Tuesday, said he doesn't anticipate the state will suffer while Mrs. Rell focuses on getting well.

''She's got enough people to back her up,'' he said. ''I wish her well.''

Jeanne Pipkin, 36, who lives in Berlin and also works in insurance, said she wasn't worried about a breakdown of leadership while Mrs. Rell was recovering.

''I think she's done a good job so far and at this point, I'm not concerned about that,'' Ms. Pipkin said. ''I just hope she comes through it and gets better.''

Mr. Dautrich, the pollster, said Mrs. Rell should expect an outpouring of public sympathy. Her approval rating was 80 percent -- the highest ever for a Connecticut governor -- according to a poll released on Nov. 23 by Quinnipiac University. He also noted that she will need to show she is competent to execute the duties of her office and she may need to open up about her condition.

''Because she is a public figure, she'll need to disclose something about her illness,'' he said. ''But the public also wants to be able to distinguish between the private life of a public official and the job they do in their public capacity.''

Jonathan Pelto, a Democrat who was a deputy majority leader in the House from 1989 to 1993, during the tenure of the governors William A. O'Neill and Lowell P. Weicker, recalled a time when information on the health of public official was even more stinting. He remembered that when the death of Gov. Ella Grasso in 1981 was announced by the spokesman from Hartford Hospital, her staff was silent.

''Nowadays, neither the media nor the public would stand for the shroud of silence that enveloped public officials and their health issues,'' he said.

Photos: Creighton Quinn, above, says he was ''shocked'' after learning Gov. M. Jodi Rell had breast cancer and was having surgery; Jeanne Pipkin, far left, was ''surprised'' and ''sad for her''; Jef Dunphy says he ''wishes her well.'' (Photographs by George Ruhe for The New York Times); Gov. M. Jodi Rell arriving for a meeting at the Capitol last month. (Photo by Bob Child/Associated Press)(pg. 3)